Survey Shows State Testing Alters Instructional Practices

Teachers are changing what and how they teach in response to state
testing programs, preliminary results from a multistate survey have
found. Those changes are greatest in states where more consequences are
attached to test results, according to the two-year study by
researchers at Boston College's National Board on Educational Testing
and Public Policy.

Joseph Pedulla, an associate professor of education at the college
and a member of the study team, said the nationally representative
survey of 12,000 teachers was "the broadest survey of teachers of this
scope on this topic that has been done."

Tentative results from the study were issued here this month at the
annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. The
full report is scheduled to be released in September.

The sample was designed to reflect the views of teachers in states
with low, moderate, and high stakes attached to their test results for
students, and for teachers, schools, and districts. States with low
stakes have no observable consequences attached to test scores, while
those with high stakes may award diplomas to students and accreditation
to schools based largely on test results. And those with moderate
stakes might, for example, report test scores and school rankings in
the media. Among the study's initial findings:

A higher percent of teachers in high-stakes states reported that
instruction in tested areas had increased. Forty-three percent of
teachers in such states said that instruction in the tested areas had
risen "a great deal," compared with 17 percent in states with moderate
stakes for schools and low stakes for students.· A higher
percent of teachers in high- stakes states reported that instruction in
tested areas had increased. Forty- three percent of teachers in such
states said that instruction in the tested areas had risen "a great
deal," compared with 17 percent in states with moderate stakes for
schools and low stakes for students.

•Teachers from high- stakes states also were more likely to say
that instruction had decreased in areas not covered by the state test.
One-fourth of teachers in states with high stakes for students and
schools reported cutting back on instruction "a great deal" in untested
areas, compared with 9 percent of teachers in states with moderate or
low stakes.

•Teachers in high-stakes states also said more often that they
used test-preparation strategies than teachers working in moderate- or
low-stakes states did. Such strategies include teaching test-taking
skills; teaching the standards or frameworks known to be on the test;
and providing students with items similar to those on the test,
test-specific preparation materials, and publicly released items from
state-mandated tests.

The survey was conducted between February and March 2001.
Approximately 4,200 teachers responded to it, for a response rate of 35
percent. The study was underwritten by the Atlantic Philanthropies,
which also subsidizes Education Week's coverage of international
education.

Mr. Pedulla said the results were weighted, "so we're pretty
confident that we have a reasonable sample to generalize to the
national sample of teachers."

While teachers from high-, moderate-, and low-stakes states were
responding in similar ways to state testing programs, "it was the
intensity that seems to vary," said Lisa Abrams, a doctoral student and
a researcher on the team.

No Stakes for Teachers

Teachers in high-stakes-testing environments were more likely than
their colleagues in other states to say that it was appropriate to use
test results to hold schools and students accountable.

For example, 34 percent of teachers in high-stakes states said it
was "very" or "moderately" appropriate to use test results for school
accreditation, compared with 22 percent of teachers in states with
lower stakes. Fifty-seven percent of teachers in high-stakes states,
compared with 37 percent of those in lower- stakes states, supported
using test results for high school graduation.

But the vast majority of teachers did not approve of using test
results to hold individual teachers accountable for their performance.
Fifty-six percent of teachers in high-stakes states and 64 percent of
teachers in states with lower stakes deemed such policies "very
inappropriate."

"We all have a human tendency to feel it's OK for everybody else to
be held accountable," said Mr. Pedulla. "The personal accountability, I
guess, is just more frightening. I don't have any data to substantiate
that."

Although teachers in all states reported feeling pressure from their
principals to raise test scores, teachers in high-stakes environments
were far more likely to note feeling such pressure and to feel it more
intensely.

"In the public debate, in the public conversation, the voices of
those who are implementing testing and accountability policies are
either underheard or not heard much at all," said Arnold Shore, the
executive director of the National Board on Educational Testing and
Public Policy and a professor of education at Boston College.

"We believe that teacher opinions and the views of others who are
involved in the school setting are key to reasonable testing and
accountability policies—a point that has not yet entered the
public conversation," he argued.

Implementation Concerns

In addition to the large-scale survey, the researchers conducted
more in-depth field studies in three states: Kansas, Massachusetts, and
Michigan. Although all three rate schools based, in part, on test
results, their consequences for individual students vary. Within each
state, the researchers conducted interviews with administrators and
teachers in four districts—one large urban, one small urban, one
suburban, and one rural—and in up to six schools in each
district: two elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high
schools.

The researchers conducted more than 360 taped interviews and
collected samples of classroom teaching and testing materials. The
interviews are being coded to look for overall themes and patterns.

"What we would like the public to hear is what we're beginning to
hear," Mr. Shore said. "Teachers are not against standards and
frameworks. They welcome, or at least accept, accountability." But they
have a long list of concerns about how such accountability policies are
being implemented, he said.

"In the main," Mr. Shore said, "we are finding that teachers are
optimistic and adaptive. They are trying to make things work."

Coverage of research is underwritten in part by a grant from the
Spencer Foundation.

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